I have had a change of mindset on this X-Wing. Basically, the value in this was that it had the original canopy and guns. The wings were broken, and when disassembled, I found non working electronics, and a seat that was broken as well. The “Smart” money would have been to strip this X-Wing, and buy a nice “core” on ebay, use the guns and canopy, and have a nice restored X-Wing. That’s kind of “cheating” though, when you run a blog literally ABOUT restoration.

I re solvent welded the wings using a sludge that had been melting in acetone for 24 hours. While the wings were drying, I reassembled the bottom of the main body:

This X-Wing is a “Display” X-Wing. I’m basically going to hang it from my ceiling. So, I decided to treat it like a “display” piece, instead of a “collectible restoration” piece, since it was just SO broken, and really, the value to hours-put-in ratio was not looking good for my time/value amount!

The posts of the plastic seat were / are still stuck in the holes that hold them in place. Instead of trying to somehow fish them out and fix the seat “properly” – I simply glued the seat back in place with JB Weld 2-part epoxy (www.jbweld.com) . It is insanely strong. I also glued the blue plastic piece that holds the motor in place (Had to be cut to get motor working again) with the same epoxy. Oddly enough, the rivets to hold the battery terminals still had enough metal on them after being drilled to hold themselves in place!

At this point, the wing weld had dried for several hours, and to strengthen it even more, I brushed some JB Weld 2-Part epoxy over the weld. It’s really ugly, but it SHOULD hold this time. Anyone who has had this piece break knows that it is near impossible to fix and have any sort of strength to it. We will see.

Next came reassembly. It went together very easily. These things are a piece of cake to put together and take apart. I think there are only 7 screws total in the entire vehicle!

When I went to put the canopy back on though, I noticed that it didn’t fit right. Over time, it had deformed slightly. I must not have noticed this at first – No worries though! My wife is a crafter and has this amazing little heat gun that produces a HUGELY hot stream of air, with very little force – IE it’s not a heat gun or a hair dryer, etc. (I’ll figure out the brand and write about it) I just heated up the windshield a bit, used my hands to gently reshape, and hit it with cold water!

Finally – the X-Wing is back together. It’s a total mess on the inside, but looks pretty good on the outside! You may remember one of the 4 guns had pieces of the wings still stuck / broken / glued inside. I drilled out the bits of wing plastic, and used a dab of hot glue to hold that gun in place. Remember – DISPLAY PIECE!!

Next and final steps: New stickers, and a final check to make sure the wings / sounds and lights still work! Stay tuned for part 5!